Among the most appreciated musky ingredients known in the art of perfumery, muscone, or 3-methylcyclopentadecanone, has acquired a special renown. In spite of this, muscone has not found a widespread utilisation in the art for lack of economical synthetic processes for its preparation.
Among the variety of known processes, one may cite de following: ##STR8## Reference: J. Chem. Soc. 4154-7 (1964) ##STR9## Reference: Tetrahedron 20, 11, 2601 (1964) ##STR10## Reference: Helv. Chim. Acta, 50, 705 (1967) or the following variant: ##STR11## Reference: Helv. Chim. Acta, 50, 708 (1967).
By making use of easily available starting materials, the processes of the instant invention which are characterized by a limited number of reaction steps represent new and original solutions to the industrial preparation of muscone.